


Charmed Life

by JackOfNone



Category: Final Fantasy VI
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-05
Updated: 2011-01-05
Packaged: 2017-10-14 10:55:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/148489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackOfNone/pseuds/JackOfNone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Celes and Setzer are from different worlds, but this new one is strange to them both.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Charmed Life

He is the kind of man whom, she knows, women are said to like -- courteous, handsome, and a bit dangerous in the way that standing at the edge of a tall tower overlooking a city is dangerous.

Celes only looks at him and sees the reflection of an unfamiliar world.

Setzer has never had to worry about a thing in his life. Money comes easy -- he's a born gambler, that much is certain, with the devil's own luck too -- and commissioning his airship had clearly freed him from the ties of kin and country. At any rate, he has no family to speak of and does not seem bound to any nation at all.

In moments like this, watching him play cards with a group of ragged ex-aristocrats, plying them with pretty words and rakish grins until they toss more coin on the table, she wonders what it would be like to live in that world. To give your loyalties out at your own whim. To never have lost count of how many men you'd killed.

That strange world -- Setzer's charmed civilian life -- is gone now. Kefka had seen to that. Now, there is only struggle and desperation and endless fighting. Even Emperor Gestahl had envisioned a future of prosperity...a future where, perhaps, even his generals might live to have a purpose other than war. Kefka, as it had turned out, has no such aspirations.

And yet, here he is. His clothes are a bit worse for the wear, and the venue is just a broken-down shell of a cafe with only a few bottles of bootleg gin to its name, but that roguish laugh and those sharp gambler's eyes are still the same as ever. 

This is supposed to be a harsh world, the kind of place that soldiers like Celes thrive. Setzer's particular brand of carefree aimlessness is supposed to be irrelevant. But with an airship back in his grasp and the ghosts of his past laid to rest, Setzer had turned back to his old ways with surprising swiftness. And now, Celes can see a little of that good humor creeping into the smiles Setzer's opponents. They're not happy to be losing to him, but they are happy to be playing cards as though they hadn't a care in the world.

"No reason to lurk in doorways," Setzer says, turning towards Celes. The way he turns, she can see his hand over his shoulder. Three aces, lined up in a neat row. "Won't you sit down and have a drink with us?"

"How's the gin?" Celes asks. Setzer fans his cards out on the table and picks up his glass.

"Terrible," he replies, his grin widening. "But I can't hold that against it. Times are hard."

Celes smiles, unbuckles her sword-belt, and slides onto the stool next to him.

"Deal me in," she says. Setzer raises one thin eyebrow.

"I hadn't pegged you for a poker player, dear General."

"I'll learn," Celes shrugs as Setzer pours her a glass of something strong-smelling from a bottle with a broken neck.


End file.
